p. 15 | China by Edwin H. Wilbur

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 7, 1904

China

By Edwin H. Wilbur

HONGKONG.— Since the middle of October, Mrs. Wilbur and I have each studied Chinese two hours a day, without interruption. I am now studying Mark's Gospel in Cantonese colloquial, and enjoy it very much.

During the winter most of the British fleet on the China station have been in Hongkong. Very few of the men have any desire for religious reading. Out of five hundred men on one ship, there may be half a dozen earnest Christians. Even these are warned against us by other ship missionaries here and in Shanghai. Still an occasional one “breaks over the line,” and comes up to see us. Once a man becomes interested in the truth, he is not content until he has purchased a good collection of our books. I often think of the words of Eze. 13:18: “Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?”

If we are permitted to go back to Canton, we can begin to work at once. I have the Canton dialect well enough now so I can sell literature, give Bible readings in a quiet way, visit in the homes, dictate letters, etc. Many of the characters that we have learned so far are colloquial—absolutely necessary for talking here, but of no use in north China. Elder and Mrs. Anderson wish us to join them in Canton. We shall be glad when it is our privilege to return. Though the streets there are narrow and dirty, while here they are broad and clean, and it is not so pleasant a place in which to live as Hongkong, that is the gateway to the thirty million of the Quangtung province.

Hongkong is one of the great waterways of the world. I wish our successor in the work here might be supplied by some friends at home with a good club

of our papers, so that he could place them regularly on the principal mail steamers. I have not been able to do anything at this, although I have personally ordered and paid for one hundred periodicals a month the past year. I have sold on an average a little over two thirds of these, and given the remainder away. The periodical work has taken considerable time, and there has been some expense connected with it, besides a good many sneers and jeers; nor have we been permitted to see much fruit from it. But the Lord has said, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” Eccl. 11:1. Though we do not see fruit, we know that his word will not return unto him void. So I have tried to be faithful in the work, though it seems we ought to have done ten times as much as we have.

Our Chinese teacher seems much interested in the truth. He has been teaching us a year. Little by little he has been learning the truth, and I hope that in time he will fully take his stand with us. He has had experience in editorial work on a Chinese daily, and is a practical school-teacher of Chinese. Of all the Chinese teachers employed in the public schools of Hongkong, this man is the one selected by the board of education when they wish anything written out in proper “book language.”

My heart is in this message, and I am anxious to see it pushed forward to completion. EDWIN H. WILBUR.